So is Beyond Earth playable with any set of mods or something yet?

My Civ itch needs scratching and Civ VI is still a trainwreck. I was reinstalling Civ V and while doing so remembered I have BE, and needless to say I'm WAY out of the loop on it. Loved the concept but the execution was just so very bad and I haven't played it since the first few months after its release.

So I ask thee, people who know more than I do about things: are there significant mod improvements? Did the expansion pack make it any better? I seem to recall the things I most wanted addressed were:
1. Diplomacy was kind of pointless because war was extremely unprofitable due to harsh health caps on any difficulty level worth playing.
2. Some of the virtue trees seemed non-optional if you wanted to have more than like, three cities.
3. The aliens started the game as a huge threat and became trivial by the midgame. (I'm hoping they're a more meaningful threat now).
4. The AI was kind of dumb (not as dumb as Civ VI though, thankfully; so presumably it hasn't really improved).

Yes, you should definitely give it another go. Rising Tide changed up the diplomacy and introduced hybrid affinities, both of which give you more options to deal with health issues, making the virtues more open. There is a bit more narrative as well. Be sure to check Frenzied Aliens in the options. They feel about right with that on.

1. Diplomacy was kind of pointless because war was extremely unprofitable due to harsh health caps on any difficulty level worth playing.

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Well, that's incorrect, you've misinterpreted the health system. Penalties for going negative aren't that high, you can easily drop to -20 and be fine, and as the game progresses you will shoot into highly positive numbers due to the many sources of extra health.

2. Some of the virtue trees seemed non-optional if you wanted to have more than like, three cities.
3. The aliens started the game as a huge threat and became trivial by the midgame. (I'm hoping they're a more meaningful threat now).
4. The AI was kind of dumb (not as dumb as Civ VI though, thankfully; so presumably it hasn't really improved).

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The rest here however... while Rising Tide has improved a lot of things, these three are still problematic. Rising Tide did not overhaul the virtue tree at all, they added a few Aliens, but the general "Early threat, then they are removed from the map"-problem is still there, and the AI is still a problem.

Oh and of course they basically removed Diplomacy as we knew it from Civ 5 in Rising Tide, replacing it with a system that, in my opinion, was a cool idea but unfortunately ended up really non-interactive.

Overall, Rising Tide is a better version of what was there before, if you didn't like that, you're probably not going to like Rising Tide, if you were "close to liking it", it's worth giving a try.

I would put #2 in the group that was remedied with RT. The virtues didn't change, but you have more sources of addressing weaknesses of your strategy allowing you to basically do what you want with the virtues.

The affinity bonuses are pretty significant, esp if you aren't super focused on one affinity. And the player can always use diplomatic policies towards expected weaknesses.

Just started what I call a "belligerent" game as Brazil where I plan to declare war on everyone as soon as I meet them, get what I can from them (one city min) and re-declare after the cool down unless they are serving some other purpose. So without much trade anticipated, I'll be using my diplo policies to supplement my science and gold.

I would put #2 in the group that was remedied with RT. The virtues didn't change, but you have more sources of addressing weaknesses of your strategy allowing you to basically do what you want with the virtues.

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Quite the opposite is the case, with more Traits pushing you into a certain direction, optimal virtue (and trait) choices are even stronger now, because effects just multiply each others efficiency. In the end all that really matters for an efficient strategy is how much science you can produce how quickly, and everything still evolves around that with very obvious, optimal paths.

It is true however that, if you are willing to forgo optimal strategies, you have a lot more choices for alternative paths that now have a lot more synergy and a more unique feel to them. But you really have to be willing to do that, otherwise there is still one dominant choice and many choices that can't come even close to competing.

Quite the opposite is the case, with more Traits pushing you into a certain direction, optimal virtue (and trait) choices are even stronger now, because effects just multiply each others efficiency. In the end all that really matters for an efficient strategy is how much science you can produce how quickly, and everything still evolves around that with very obvious, optimal paths.

It is true however that, if you are willing to forgo optimal strategies, you have a lot more choices for alternative paths that now have a lot more synergy and a more unique feel to them. But you really have to be willing to do that, otherwise there is still one dominant choice and many choices that can't come even close to competing.

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I'll take your word for it, since I have never concerned myself with the O word. I'm firmly in your second paragraph. I'm far less concerned with what the best choice is and all about trying something a little different every time.

I can't imagine enjoying playing on the highest difficulty and racing through a worn path. I play on Soyuz and mostly role play my choices. I tend to think the average player is something similar, particularly as all the optimal crowd has mostly moved on for the reasons you state.